Field
The present invention relates generally to databases, particularly to improving database performance and scalability for distributed database system environments.
Background
High-performance enterprise applications often encounter performance bottlenecks and scalability problems when trying to access data stored in a database. Traditionally, databases have used disk-based storage devices to store data. However, disk access can be very slow. To improve database performance, main memory has been used as a data buffer or cache for data stored on disk. To further improve performance and resolve scalability issues, particularly for large enterprise applications, development of a distributed caching system, which combines the scalability of distributed systems with the reduced access latency of main memory, is occurring.
While such systems are capable of improving performance, challenges exist for ensuring the necessary functionality. One particular issue for distributed data spread across different cache nodes up is how to achieve backup and restore that needs to occur up to a transactionally consistent single point in time, in parallel, and while allowing online transactions during the backup. The present invention addresses such needs.